Two officers accused of raping an 18-year-old Brooklyn woman while she was being detained in a police van have made a plea deal that will allow them to avoid any jail time.

Former detectives Eddie Martins and Richard Hall were originally charged with kidnapping, rape, and sexual assault after allegedly raping the teenager while she was being detained for marijuana possession. Those charges were replaced with charges of official misconduct and receiving bribes, to which the men pled guilty and will receive five years probation.

Advertisement

The woman claims she was repeatedly raped by the detectives and forced to perform oral sex before they dumped her on the side of a dimly lit street a quarter-mile from the police station and drove away. The former police officers maintain that the “sex” was consensual.

When the incident occurred in 2017, there was a law in place making it a crime for parole or corrections officers to have sex with those in custody but no such rule existed for police officers. However, rape has ostensibly been illegal, even for police officers, in both New York City and state for quite some time.

Advertisement

An attorney for one of the former detectives insists that his client isn’t a rapist, just a middle-aged man willing to have sex with an undoubtedly terrified teenager over a little bit of marijuana:

“It was a disgrace. This never should have been prosecuted as a rape case. The Brooklyn DA’s office knew immediately, within hours and days, that the witness lied about virtually everything,” he said. “They should have nipped this in the bud immediately...She was the driving force. She offered the bribe to get out of the arrest and immediately exploited the facts to bring a $50 million lawsuit.”

Advertisement

In 2018, lawmakers officially declared all sex between police officers and those in custody rape in the third degree.